My Kinda Snack - Muesli Cookies

I'm the kind who hardly ever eat snacks especially those junk food that comes in packet. It's not that I'm snobbish or trying to be healthy, just that my parents forbade us to eat those stuff or munching on things in between meals as they said it will spoil our appetite. So it never became a habit even until now. Occasionally I do however itch for some bites, so I will rummage through the fridge for chocolates or left over cakes.

Recently, I came across this recipe that said crunchy muesli cookies which seems very simple and easy. As usual I don't really follow the recipe but just guesstimate my way since it's not a cake and I tend to reduce the sugar amount anyway.

I've reduced the amount of sugar so it wasn't really crunchy but rather crumbly as very little butter is used to bind the total amount of ingredients used. If you have sweet tooth, steer clear of this recipe or maybe add a little more sugar :p



What I love about this cookie is, there is the crunch from the oats and nuts; then there's the chewiness from the dried fruits. Tasted very much like my homemade granola. So if you like granola for breakfast, you'll love this cookie recipe.

Muesli Cookies 

(A)
90 g (1 cup) rolled oats
150 g (1 cup) plain flour
200 g castor sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground mixed spice
100 g (3/4 cup) finely chopped mixture of dried cranberries, raisins and dates (you can use any combination ie. apricot, sultanas, citrus peel etc)
70 g (1/2 cup) chopped almonds and walnuts (any combination of nuts will work too) 

(B)
125 g butter
2 Tbsp maple/corn syrup or even honey (I've used maple syrup)
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 Tbsp boiling hot water 

Preheat oven to 160C, grease bottom of oven try and line with baking paper. Mix all ingredients (A) in a large mixing bowl and set aside.

In a small saucepan, melt butter and maple syrup over low heat. Once butter is completely melted, add in bicarbonate of soda and the boiling hot water. Remove pan from heat and cool a little. 

Pour warm butter mixture into the dry ingredients (A). Combine them thoroughly. Roll them into balls* and place on lined tray. Flatten a little with hand. Leave some space in between to allow the cookies to expand. Bake about 15 - 20 minutes or until golden brown. Cool the cookies on cooling rack before storing in air tight container. 

I've roll them using about 1 slightly heaped tablespoon dough mixture and managed to get about 35 cookies.

Review: Burger Junkyard @The Strand

**Pork Free**

Of late, Klang Valley has been bombarded with all sorts of burger joints, from burger bakar (grilled) to black buns (that's made with charcoal powder), the list is really endless. We're not the type who are prepared to queue for our food, I mean like really queue for more than 30 minutes especially so when it's just burger. So we don't go all the way out for them, really.

We dropped by this one, Burger Junkyard located at The Strand, Kota Damansara, just because we were in that area to pick up some pet food. As it was still quite early, we managed to get a table easily but not for those who came in after 7.30pm. It's clean and straightforward with some furniture items recycled from cable drums and wooden crates.

Loved the fact that someone actually bothered to came outside to greet us when BoiBoi and I were browsing the menu while waiting for Capt'n Hook to park the car. The attention given in explaining how to order right down to recommend their signature burgers is well commendable. These young chaps really nailed it here! How about the burgers then?

Ordering process is quite simple, just go up to the counter and place your order but at times, table service is available too. After paying, they'll pass you a furry rat that has a number tag on it. Once your burger is ready, they'll bring it to your table. Hmmm not so sure about the furry rat as I can get a bit paranoid touching a public furry item, not so hygienic I feel when you have different dirty hands handling them. When BoiBoi was young, we always wipe his toys with disinfectant. I hope Burger Junkyard would do the same, maybe few times a day.

Anyway, BoiBoi went for a single beef patty Steamin' Cheese Burger (RM15.90), just cause of the cheese. Apparently all the cheese served on the burgers are steamed aged and pressed Cheddar to retain it's moisture and giving life back to frozen Cheddar. So on top of the beef patty has cheese, onion slices and tomato slice sandwiched in between black sesame topped buns. All burgers came with fries and a house aioli (aioli is usually made of garlic, olive oil, lemon juice and egg yolks). We knew BoiBoi enjoyed his burger tremendously minus tomato ketchup this time, in between licking his fingers off the juices of the beef patty.

I always like to order the most popular item on the menu, well just to see if it really deserves all the attention. Brooklyn Burger (RM15.90) is the most ordered burger and I had mine single beef patty. It was indeed a towering and handsome burger with cheese, turkey ham, beef bacon, a slice of grilled pineapple ring, a fried egg, some lettuce, sliced onions, and a slice of tomato with buns slathered with their house aioli. Phew, quite a mouthful eh?

A sloppy burger indeed with juices running out with each bite. To solve the problem of dripping juices, we emptied the fries onto a lined basket and used the waxed paper to wrap up the burger :p

I like the usage of fresh pineapple slice instead of canned one was the sweetness would have killed the taste. The patty is thick and retained it's moistness. This burger is something I would order again and again.

Capt'n Hook decided on the Mystery Burger. When it was described to us, all I heard was garlic... garlic... garlic...! No wonder they call it Vampire Slayer (RM18.90 for double).  I had a bite and even though there are quite a number of garlic items on it, it's not overly garlicky. Imagine other than the standard ingredients, they have on garlic aioli, garlic confit sauce, garlici butter and garlic crouton bits. Capt'n Hook ought to count his luck that his partner equally like garlic :p and was not put off with his garlic breath.

Hmmm I just noticed the pic, there's only one patty but if not mistaken double means the weight is more and not 2 pieces of patties.

We have a side of Fried Country Mushrooms (RM6.90) which is deep fried battered fresh button mushrooms served with a tomato salsa dip. Nothing special or exciting over this side.

BoiBoi had a dessert of Brownie with vanilla ice cream (RM7.90) which seriously isn't anywhere like brownie. Tasted like steamed chocolate cake with a heavy tasting of rising agent. Perhaps renaming brownie to moist chocolate cake would be better but if I were them, I would source for another good tasting brownie recipe.

Oh yeah, for drinks, there isn't any drinks fountain yet, hence soft drinks and tea come in cans in a fridge near the counter. Just help yourself. I like the choice of having green tea after such a heavy assault :D Our total bill of all the items above plus 2 cans of drink came to RM67.50.

Overall, we quite like the burgers which has moist beef patties and the usage of fresh ingredients. No complains there. Attention and service given are so far one of the best. Even some big cafes/restaurants can't beat them! If they can keep up and maintain their quality and consistency, they should be able to survive the onslaught of burger joints.

There is one teeny complain though, the serviettes! Sounded lame huh but the serviettes they used are those thin ply ones dispensed on a dispenser at your table. The size is kinda smallish too, not so convenient to be used when you have juices running all over your hands. I really felt bad when I had to kill so many trees by pulling out so many pieces of them. Something thicker and biggish would be appreciated. Oh don't worry, they do have wash basin to wash up unlike a certain burger place we went. Just that lots of paper napkins are needed to wipe the smudges on your fingers and face heh.

 

Burger Junkyard
No. 16-G, Jalan PJU 5/20D

The Strand Kota Damansara

47810 Petaling Jaya

Malaysia
Tel: +603-6143 4305

Facebook

Business hour:

Lunch (12pm-3pm)

Dinner (6pm-10pm)

Closed on Sundays

Stir-Fried Beansprouts With Tofu And Salted Fish

It's back to a Monday and how does one get some quick, simple and hot dishes on the dining table in the evening. My best strategy would get everything prep the day before and one can get things going quickly then. This Stir-Fried Beansprouts With Tofu And Salted Fish could be one of the dish but the only thing is one can't keep bean sprouts for long.

You can pre-fry the salted fish and store in an air-tight container. The tofu can be pre-fried too and keep in the fridge but if you're not, sprinkle some salt all over the firm tofu and place in an air-tight container to store in the fridge. You'll need to use the firm tofu up very quickly as they turn bad easily.



This is a classic homestyle dish in almost every Chinese household. Am sure many of you, your mother would have dish up this for your meals. Usually it will just comprises of bean sprouts and salted fish but at times tofu is added to make it more substantial. Sounded lame huh but so far I know there are people who need to have recipes to guide them to cook based on my experience working in a culinary school.

If you can find short, fat and juicy bean sprouts from Ipoh, it will be so much better but the ordinary ones are just as fine. I like to tailed mine and my aunt would even topped them!

Stir-Fried Beansprouts With Tofu And Salted Fish
300 g bean sprouts (taugeh), tailed
2 pieces firm tofu, slice halved crosswise then into four so you'll get 8 square pieces
1 small piece salted fish, cut into small pieces and fry lightly in oil
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 stalk spring onion, slice into 4 cm length
1 tsp Chinese rice wine
Salt & grounded white pepper to taste 

Lightly fry the tofu pieces with some oil on both sides till brown. Dish up and set aside. 

In the same pan/wok, heat up about 1 Tbsp oil before adding in the garlic. Fry till fragrant before tossing in the bean sprouts. Keep stirring, sprinkle in some water if the sprouts are very dry. Add the tofu and seasonings. Taste and adjust seasonings if needed. 

Pour in the rice wine around the pan/wok and not directly on the sprouts so that the heat will let out the wine's aroma. Stir and add in the spring onion last. Dish up and sprinkle the salted fish pieces all over. Best serve with steamed rice.  

For vegetarian version, just omit the salted fish.

Review: OMG! Ooh My Gas Liquid Nitrogen Ice Cream

It have been quite a long while since we last pop by Pavilion Kuala Lumpur. As we got out of the car park, we are very near Level 1 which of course is the food haven floor. As we walk thru looking for the escalator, we chanced upon OMG! Ooh My Gas Liquid Nitrogen Ice Cream.

The ice cream lover BoiBoi was scrutinising the posters and all, while Capt'n Hook and I checked out the row of Kitchen Aid mixers where each of them have some kind of piping which we have guessed must be where the liquid nitrogen would dispense.



Seeing that it's something new to him, we decided to let him try one small serving which is called a Cutie Cup. For a 5 oz serving at RM12.90, you get to pick the colour flavour (more on that later) and a topping.



There are 3 steps in ordering, the first being choosing your base of gelato, ice cream or soy milk (woohoo for those who are lactose intolerant). Next you pick your "colour flavour"which you'll see a range of flavours under nuts, fruits or classic followed by colour. Lastly, pick your toppings.

Click to view a larger image

BoiBoi chose an ice cream base with peanut butter flavour and no colour (I think I must have taught him well hehe for not eating colour enhanced food) with a topping of chocolate sauce. And so the server proceed by adding the concoction into the mixer's bowl. He then secure the bowl to the mixer and start beating the concoction. After a few beatings, we next saw "white smoke" billowing all over making it quite theatrical especially for children. Once done, the server scrape out the frozen concoction into a paper cup before topping with chocolate sauce.

BoiBoi getting a dose of liquid nitrogen smoke which he said it's cold, of course

We have a few bites and the verdict... Capt'n Hook just shrugged his shoulder, BoiBoi of course will say is nice, as for myself... the ice cream was smooth and melt quickly but the flavouring is just so so, nothing to shout about. I supposed it's such a novelty now for the young to watch such dramatic smog that billows from the bowl which ended up freezing the liquid concoction into a frozen delight.





As usual, when I write, I tend to search the internet to learn more about the product or ingredients used and came across a rather shocking read that liquid nitrogen nearly kill this teenager but luckily she was brought to the hospital on time. Seems that she drank a couple of cocktails that used liquid nitrogen which made the drink so cold that her stomach was damaged akin to frost bite.  Her stomach has to be removed o.O The word of warning would be please ensure the nitrogen has fully evaporated before downing the drinks or whatever, I guess ice cream included!!! So be warned ;-)


OMG! Ooh My Gas Liquid Nitrogen Ice Cream
Level 1,  Pavilion Kuala Lumpur

No. 168 Jalan Bukit Bintang

55100 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Review: Cakes at Swich Cafe, Publika

We dropped by Publika Shopping Gallery for dinner and was walking around just to exercise a bit when Capt'n Hook declared that he would love some cake and coffee. Boi Boi and him likes to have dessert after their mains. We stopped by at the information counter and browsed the shops around and looked at the leaflets and chanced upon one that mentioned Swich Cafe's opening just a few days before.

Swich Cafe is no stranger to me, not when I have Lyrical Lemongrass plus a couple of other non-blogger friends who kept posting the utmost delicious offerings especially the out of the norm cakes by Swich Cafe on their Facebook timelines. Made me sounds as if I've known the proprietress, Lim Cheng Cheng, for ages haha. We have tried their offerings during Bangsar Shopping Complex's Epicurious Brunch and was looking for more but the first location at HP Tower doesn't seems to have a very ideal opening hours hence I guess a lot of us out there would think the Publika outlet is really Heaven sent!

When we dropped by, Cheng Cheng was there and oh boy we really does seems like we have known forever! Lol it was especially so when Capt'n Hook, Cheng Cheng and myself were in the same line of business. As the industry was quite small, there were many names exchanged in the conversation. We did that over a slice of Hummingbird Cake (RM10.00) and a Latte (RM8.00).



Capt'n Hook likes moist cakes with lots of nuts and this Hummingbird Cake fitted the bill when the crunch came from the toasted coconut flakes. The cake was packed with banana and pineapple with a nice hint of spices. The coconut cream frosting is a nice compliment without being very sweet.



Boi Boi as expected chose his ever favourite chocolate cake but this is no ordinary chocolate cake but one made with Valrhona Chocolate (RM12.90). The cake is moist with the right amount of sugar and you'll know good quality chocolate is used when the taste can be exquisite and luscious to the mouth plus it was so well made that the ganache shined like a mirror under the bright lightings.



So far business has been picking up and Cheng Cheng hopes to sell more if their savoury dishes but then again she's not helping it when she keeps coming up with so many ingenious desserts using out of the ordinary ingredients like jackfruit, mangosteen or even avocado. I can also vouch that the savoury dishes are not your typical stuff but do expect a married of East and West such as butter prawn or even sweet and sour chilli crab pastas! Can't wait to dig in more of these and we're going to pop by at Publika soon.

Note: There's a 10% service charged on the total bill.

Swich Cafe
Level G3 Publika Shopping Gallery
Solaris Dutamas
Kuala Lumpur
Business hours: 10.00am - 10.00pm (Mon - Sun)


Mezzanine Floor, HP Towers,
12 Jalan Gelenggang, Bukit Damansara,
Kuala Lumpur
Business hours: 10.00am - 3.00pm (Mon - Fri)
Tel: +6018 599 5152
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Swichfinefood/

Steamed Pumpkin Cake

**Non-Halal**




My mom made the utmost delish Steamed Yam Cake that is filled to the brim with yam, Chinese sausages and dried prawns. I've asked her a few times how to make it and amount of ingredients was base on the size of the "antique" tall round tin that she have. Kinda difficult for me to adjust it so I just let it be. I know I can get tonnes of recipes online but somehow it just didn't move me. Other than Steamed Yam Cake, there are versions using different ingredients like radish, black eyed peas or even pumpkin.

My boss gave me a huge chunk of pumpkin after a photo shoot. I love pumpkin but not everybody in the household really likes it :( So to mellow out eating pumpkin in chunks or slices, I remember there's this Steamed Pumpkin Cake recipe in Agnes Chang's Delightful Snacks & Dim Sum book. I guess having grated pumpkin in a steamed cake should do the job.

I've adapted the recipe just a little, omitting chicken stock granules. In fact I've used far more grated pumpkin than stated in the recipe hence my cake is packed with pumpkin. Thank goodness everybody enjoyed the steamed cake even BoiBoi did not make any fuss and asked for more. This recipe is definitely a keeper as the proportion of batter versus ingredients melded up nicely and feel free to add more pumpkins.

Steamed Pumpkin Cake
(Adapted from Agnes Chang - Delightful Snacks & Dim Sum)


4 tbsp oil
6 cloves garlic, chopped
6 shallots, chopped
60 g dried prawns, soaked, rinsed and roughly chopped
1 pair Chinese sausages, diced
200 g minced pork meat
800 g pumpkin, seeded with skin removed will yield about 600 g, coarsely grated
Salt and ground white pepper to taste

Batter (mix them together):
300 g rice flour
60 g tapioca flour
1 litre water
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground white pepper

Garnishing:
Spring onion, chopped
Fried shallots

In a fairly large pan or wok, heat oil and fry up chopped garlic and shallots till soft and fragrant. Add dried prawns and continue to stir fry till fragrant. Next add in sausages and minced meat. Stir fry until meat is cooked and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Give the batter a stir before pouring into the stir fried mixture together with the grated pumpkin. Add in salt and pepper. Keep stirring until batter became thick. Taste and adjust seasonings. Turn off the heat.

Pour mixture into a 22 cm square or even round tray. Even the surface with the back of a spoon or spatula. Steam on high heat for about 45 minutes. The surface should be quite firm. Remove and leave to cool completely.

Garnish the cake by scattering chopped spring onion and fried shallots on the surface before slicing. Serve with garlic chilli sauce.

Note: For a more fragrant cake, pan fry the slices with some oil before serving especially the left over, if there's any!

PSA: RM1 Chicken Promo @ Dragon-i and Canton-i

Quickie post, just saw this on 1 March 2013. RM1 chicken promotion is back at Dragon-i and Canton-i for the entire March. Click here for more details and the T&C.

Do enjoy your chicken :p for the month of March.